With the year coming to a close it's time to look back at some of the most relevant stories and product launches of 2010. TechSpot does a brief recount of tech happenings in six categories: Desktop CPUs and Graphics, Hardware Devices and Components, Software, Gaming, Mobile Computing and The Web.

Software

Windows celebrated its 25th birthday in 2010 with the latest iteration of Microsoft's operating system becoming the fastest-selling in history. Much of the software development scene turned its attention to mobile platforms like iOS and Android, while Google intends to take everything to the cloud with its Chrome OS, Google TV and Chrome Web Store. Even Microsoft acknowledged this trend by taking its Office software online next to the latest desktop release.

There were a few fiascos (you can put AVG's Free Antivirus in that bag) and many other gems worth highlighting in our ‘download of the week' features. On the browser front, Google's Chrome continued to rise in popularity almost as fast as new versions were pushed out the door. Firefox usage remained rather stagnant - version 4 might help it regain its mojo, but unfortunately it was delayed - and IE9 is set to stop the market share bleeding for Microsoft next year.